Shame On Me
by Jackrandom
Summary: They all knew Jack had a past, they didn't expect part of it to fall throught the rift... [JackxOC]
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Jack rode the pavement elevator to ground level. His mind was wandering a little; a walk would do the trick. He turned in the direction of the bay and stepped off the curb.

A sudden, whooshing sound drew is eyes skyward so quickly it took a moment for them to focus. He reacted instinctively, positioned himself directly under the falling object, arms outstretched leaning slightly back.

The force winded him, and then a second winding as he fell back against the pavement, but he'd survive, he always did. He breathed through the pain for several minutes before struggling to his knees and looking down at his catch.

His sharp intake of breath could have been audible in the hub below as he gazed into the face of the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. He heaved himself and the woman up to a standing position and didn't think twice as he reactivated the pavement elevator and descended.

As he entered the hub he yelled to no one in particular and all of them at once, "It seems to be raining gorgeous women outside…I've got me one, so the rest of you better be quick."

That was a statement the rest of the team just couldn't ignore, so as Jack hurried to the autopsy room, Gwen, Tosh, Ianto and especially Owen followed quickly on his heels and crowded around the table as he laid out the stunning creature.

"Do your thing, Owen" barked Jack as he stood out of the way so the Doctor could shed a little light on his discovery but never once took his eyes off the woman. She was slim but tall. Her legs filled a pair of black leather jeans in all the right places. A white tank top didn't leave much to the imagination but with the perfection of her figure you didn't need to rely on imagination anyway.

Her face was sweet and oval but strong as well with full cherry coloured lips, high cheekbones and even though she wore no makeup her skin was smooth and flawless. A thick and glorious mane of chestnut and blonde waves framed the picture. The important scans over, Jack turned his eyes and mind to the injuries and looked enquiringly at Owen.

"Definitely human," answered Owen to the unspoken question, " multiple Lacerations to the right arm nothing fatal that I can see, maybe a bit of a blow to the head at the back here. She should come too at some stage."

Jack flashed his trademark crooked, flirty grin and to no one in particular said, " That is good news."

Owen announced sometime later that their guest was starting to regain consciousness. He had cleaned and dressed her wounds and monitored her vitals but there wasn't a great deal he could do with the concussion at this stage except watch her. It was a good sign that she was now trying to sit up with her eyes open.

They hazily swept the room, which to any eyes would have seemed a little frightening and you could see a trace of fear cross hers as the cold, stark room came into full focus. The fear was quickly and almost instinctively replaced by defiance when her eyes reached Owen's. It crossed his mind that this defiance was a practiced look, as if she had faced similar situations many times before. The others swept into the room before he had a chance to muse further on this.

In their usual fashion the team lined the back wall of the autopsy room and allowed their leader the room to interrogate any newcomer to the hub. The woman's eyes appraised each of them slowly and calmly until they came to rest on Jack. Her pupils shrunk in hostility, she alternated between staring and squinting as if she couldn't quite believe she was seeing him.

Jack started to chatter in his usual manner about her fall and his catch, trying to put her at ease, keep the atmosphere light and decidedly un-interrogation like.

Her hostility seemed to increase with every word that came out of his mouth, until finally his words tapered off into silence. She broke the silence with a single anguished word.

"YOU"

She leapt from the table seemingly oblivious to the injuries she had sustained and rounded on him. Jack still wasn't taking this as seriously as he should have been however he still started to back away. She took the distraction of his movement to act with lightning swift efficiency, disarmed Gwen who was moving in closer to the woman and held Gwen's gun level with jacks fore head.

" I should have done this years ago, " she almost spat at him.

It all seemed to happen in a matter of seconds. Owen leapt and tackled the woman. She squeezed the trigger of Gwen's weapon hitting Jack in the stomach instead of the intended head. Ianto drew his weapon and held ready…..The woman started to get the better of Owen…Ianto leaned in for the shot…..Jack screamed from the floor where he lay slumped and bloody, "Don't kill her…" Ianto's shot rang out and the bullet instead of being fatal hit the woman in the shoulder.

The sheer exertion and pain must have overcome her then and she collapsed unconscious on the floor not far from where Jack lay. He managed to grumble one last word before he lost consciousness as well.

"Cells".

The woman sat up again, this time safely behind unbreakable perspex of the Torchwood holding cells. Gwen stood with her back to the wall of the corridor, weapon holstered but mind alert. Jack sat reverse on a chair right in front of the cell, leaning his chin thoughtfully on his hands. He waited for the look of shock to pass when she realized he was alive and unhurt sitting before her. Then he began.

"Who are you and why did you shoot me?"

"Why aren't you dead?" she shot back glaringly

"I'm just not and I'm asking the questions. Why did you shoot me?"

She stared at him long and hard, and answered thoughtfully rather than angrily.

"Because you deserve to be shot."

"Can you be more specific, because I have pissed off a lot of people but I do tend to remember them, how can you be so sure it's me that deserved shooting"

"I'm sure"

"Why?"

The woman smiled almost wistfully, which Gwen thought was a little odd and Jack found highly disconcerting. As long as it was, he could not place this woman in his history. He would never forget someone this beautiful…or angry.

" There's only one of you Captain." She paused for effect at addressing him correctly then spitefully continued. " Time Agent, Con man, traveling Companion to the Doctor and Hero of the Game Station…does that sound like you."

For once Jack was speechless. Gwen was practically agog. The stranger saw this and directed her next statement to the other woman. "Surely you must know Captain Jack Harkness is the name of a dead man….." She looked back at Jack, "I know your true name……"

Without taking his eyes from the woman's he ordered Gwen from the room. She protested but when he turned his face to hers and she saw he was imploring rather than ordering she obliged and headed back up to the hub.

She ran at top speed to the CCTV screens, brought up the footage of Jack and the woman in the cells. The rest of the team crowded in around her. They all stared holding their breath hoping for some answers about this man that none of them really knew. They watched as Jack reached his hand up to the leather band he wore on his wrist and suddenly the screens turned to static. The picture and the sound gone.

Jack turned his attention back to the woman. "Since you know me so well perhaps you will return the favour and tell me who the hell you are."She started laughing; Jack's patience was wearing very thin with this game. " Name!" he barked.

"Frienze,….Time Agent Frienze Baltha.

Jack looked like he was going to be sick.


	2. Chapter 2

"What are you doing in Cardiff 2007?" asked Jack

"Not working." She replied somewhat sarcastically.

"Not the point"

"What are you doing in Cardiff?"

"Frienze, I am asking the questions"

"Fri"

Jack looked up sharply, his eyes questioning hers?

"That's what you used to call me….Fri…like Free."

This threw him slightly, but still no recollection of her surfaced. It suggested an intimacy between them. She could be lying he supposed, but almost immediately dismissed it. Somehow he felt she wasn't. "They really did a job on you didn't they?" She wondered aloud. "all these years and no trigger. Two years just gone." And she snapped her finger to illustrate the point. Now she really had his attention. The memory of Jack's last two years at the time agency. The last two years of his life before turning con man, just didn't exist, ret conned away. It allowed for the possibility that he really did know this woman. And that he really did deserve to be shot.

"Which brings us back to my original question, why did you shoot me?"

"Returning the favor"

"I'd like the whole story"

"I don't have the strength" there was raw honesty in this answer…as if recounting the full story would suck the life out of her, but he needed to hear it…if he couldn't remember, then he needed to hear it from someone who was obviously there.

"Find it."

"I was your partner at the agency, for the last two years you were there. I was your partner on your last mission. The partner you shot and left for dead. The lover you shot and left for dead."

Jack flinched but pushed on "What was the mission?" he asked.

She could see he wasn't going to relent. She took a deep and shaky breath and began.

"You got a promotion, Nate. You know how layered the agency is, or do you?" When he didn't answer she added, "You were an assassin."

Jack swallowed hard but remained silent. Fri realized she was going to have to spell it out.

"It wasn't always about fixing time, sometimes it was about getting rid of the undesirables who could have really made a mess of human development. You had made noise about wanting to get out for months, but you knew, we all knew, you just don't walk away from the agency, not at that level.

"Our last mission was a straightforward track and take out. A particularly nasty politician in 2180, Maleki Hurst got his hands on a bit of time travel technology, not everyone is as careful as the agency. We ran every timeline projection we could think of. They were all pretty screwed up, galaxy wide depression, famine, and death. It was decided by the powers that be that it required a take out instead of just removing the technology from him.

"2181 was projected as the optimum time, little or no repercussions within a 20 range, just as he was starting to put his plans into action. On the day of the hit I was to create a hostage situation in the ready room. You were to swoop in as a negotiator, get the rest of the staff out and come back in to finish off the guy.

"Job done, your manipulator failed when it was time to bug out. That's when I realized that word had gotten back to agency about you wanting out. Another agent appeared in that room about 40 seconds after that and you freaked. He didn't even get close to you, you just started shooting. They sent in two more. They had remote retconn on their wristbands by then, it was supposed to be instant, one got a shot off but I thought it missed you. You kept on shooting, four bodies now strewn across the room. They weren't trying to kill you Nate, just wipe your memories, and you killed them all. Agents you'd worked with for years, you just killed them. You took a wrist band from one of the bodies..." here Frienze started to cry.

"You set some coordinates then you stood facing me. I was crouched in a corner of the room out of the line of fire. You looked at me coldly, as if you hated me. We had been lovers for most of the two years we'd been working together…." Her voice dropped almost to a whisper. "And you just stared at me like a monster…leveled your gun…and just pulled the trigger. No emotion in your face, no remorse……and then you were gone"

The tears just wouldn't stop now. Jack could barely make out the words. Her anguish so real and unabashed. His heart twisted in horror at the story that unfolded from her lips. He could help himself no longer and he threw open the cell door and went towards her. He wanted to hold her to protect her, like he would do for one of his team. Too late he realized how stupid and futile that impulse was. It was him she obviously needed protection from.

When she saw him come into the cell she recoiled and started screaming at him…

"Don't touch me. Don't you dare touch me." She lashed out at him again, this time pummeling his chest, kicking him…any pain she could inflict. Jack let her, he didn't even try to hold her back, he just stood there taking the pain, almost grateful to feel it. With one gut-wrenching sob she fell to her knees. What was she doing, she couldn't kill him with a gun. What the hell are her fists and feet going to do?

He fell with her and finally she reached out and clung to his coat. Tears streaming down both of their cheeks now. A whisper tore from Fri's throat, "Make it go away."

Jack looked down into her face, did he hear her correctly, and did he understand her correctly. When he didn't answer she spoke again, "Retconn me, please."

He stared at her in almost horror. "No" was all he managed before he got unsteadily to his feet and left the cell. Locking it behind him.

Jack locked himself in his office for the longest time. He went over and over the last two words she had said or rather begged. It was worse wasn't it, not knowing at all. He had agonized over the two years they had taken from him. Not knowing what he should feel. Should he be proud, ashamed, scared. Surely it is better to know and to cope, even if it was as bad as she described, than to just have a gap. To always wonder. That was his agony, yet her memories of those years seem to be her agony.

There was more he needed to know, much more, before he could even consider her desperate request. He went back down to the cells. "Are you going to try to kill me again?" he asked flatly.

"No" she replied equally flatly.

He opened the cell door and began walking. She followed dutifully behind. All the anger seemed to have left her. She was just exhausted, depleted, defeated. He led her to his office. Jack Insisted to the rest of the team that everything was fine and for them to lock up behind them. They could have the weekend off unless anything major happened and he would see them back here Monday morning without fail.

Gwen and Ianto were hesitant, but Jack fixed them both with an 'I know what I'm doing' look, so they reluctantly followed his instructions. He turned back to his office and shut the door. When he reached his desk he pulled open the bottom draw and took out a bottle of very old scotch and two glasses. This act seemed to defeat Frienze even more and she slumped down in the chair facing him, took the proffered glass and downed it in one gulp. Jack refilled her glass and his own and sat down in his own chair.

"I need more from you," he stated. Frienze snorted at this, but didn't answer. Jack hardened up. He was talking to an enemy again, someone who believed he was responsible for her attempted murder. Someone who had betrayed her, as a colleague and as a woman.

"How did you get to 2007?" he asked.

"Rift."

"What were your last coordinates?"

"Not sure, Cardiff, maybe 5300," she sighed.

"What happened?" he persisted.

"I gave up."

"What?"

"Looking for you…..just lay down one day…. I had tracked you from the 22nd century, to the 20th, to the 200th, I got to the Game Station and you were gone. Oh not the memory of you, all those people saying you were a hero, what a joke." The smile was sardonic. "My manipulator was powering down and I thought I'd go home, give it up. Got as far as 5300 and it gave out. So I was stuck there. I tried to make a new life. Everyone I knew was long gone. Other agents had very little interest in that time period."

"Your betrayal just kept eating away at me. I couldn't let it go……." She looked him full in the face now. Tears again streaking her own cheeks, "I loved you so much Nate…," Jack closed his eyes. It was like hearing an echo. "Those times were so happy for me, working together, playing together."

"Why did you track me," Asked Jack "all that way?"

"I just wanted to know why," and she laughed again, "but you can't tell me can you?"

Jack shook his head.

"Serves me right, so," she sighed, "when the rift opened a few days ago I just went through."

"But you were falling from the sky today?" he questioned.

She looked away, there was a long paused, "I jumped."

"You jumped?

"From the top of this building." She hung her head, tears plopping onto the black leather. "You couldn't even let me get away from the pain that way."

"How did you survive?... After that day." Asked Jack

"More agents and a cleanup crew were sent in. They took me home and patched me up. The wound wasn't fatal. I was out of action for a while though." A thought occurred to her, "How did you?"

He looked up sharply. "It's a long story; let's just say I heal fast."

"Secrets."

"Fri, you have to believe I am not the same man I was back then. I don't know what happened to me. I don't know why I did those things. I do wish I could remember but I can't. So much has happened to me since then, and the years traveling with the Doctor, they changed me. He showed me another way to live. I won't hurt you again. I can promise you that." Fri looked deeply into his eyes but did not respond.

"You have nowhere else to go, no vortex manipulator, no way home. Stay here, work with us here. You can build a good life; it's a nice century, simple. You can sit back and watch first hand the time that changed humanity forever. Watch history." He rubbed his face with both hands, picked up his scotch and took a big gulp. "Let me try to make it up to you."

Jack got up and left the office allowing her to give some thought to his proposal. He wandered out into the heart of the hub. It was so quiet without the team here. He willed himself to remember the events Fri had described to him, he tried to picture it happening in his mind, but there was nothing there. What had happened to him that day? And how had he felt about the woman then? He knew how he felt now, she was hot! He pulled himself up on that thought straight away.

"Nate." She called from the office doorway.

He strode towards her, his head tilted to one side in question.

"I'll stay; I don't think I have much of a choice."

"OK, then can you start calling me Jack? Too many names will confuse the kids." Jack jerked his thumb towards the workstations to indicate his team.

"Jack." She almost whispered it. He liked the way it sounded when she said it. God she must have been amazing if just the sound of his name on her lips turned him on. He winced again at the thought. For the first time in his life he thought himself incorrigible.

The remainder of the weekend was taken up with Jack bringing Frienze up to speed on what Torchwood was about. They also shopped for some clothes and necessities for her. Living quarters were a troublesome issue. He was concerned about her being off base in a century she knew very little about, but at the same time the sensible man in him did not want her inside the hub alone just yet.

Jack kept an apartment in the city, although more often than not he ended up sleeping at the hub. He decided she should stay there for the time being and he would use his quarters on base. They walked over to the apartment with their purchases and once he turned the key and opened the door he handed it to Frienze. It was pretty obvious that Ianto's cleaning did not extend outside the base because Jack's apartment looked like it hadn't been tidied in a long, long time. Fri turned her face to him with one eyebrow arched. He just smiled and muttered something about having a busy life.

He showed her around scooping up piles of clothes and pizza boxes as he went, taught her how to use the TV, the stove, she giggled at the microwave, before plonking himself down on the sofa and putting his feet up on his coffee table. Fri frowned at the movement. Her eyes took on a far away look just for a moment. Jack spotted it though. He put his feet flat on the floor and said softly. "We were very close, then?" She nodded Fri turned to look out the window. Jack stood up and moved in behind her, he put a hand on her shoulder; she flinched slightly but didn't stop him. "I'm sorry, Fri." he said, meaning it. She knew he meant it, allowed her eyes to close and feel him near. She could hear his breathing, the breaths coming shorter the longer they stayed connected. He lifted his hand from her shoulder and ran the back of it lightly down the side of her face. In the past, or should she say the future, that would have been her undoing. She could never resist him; from the first moment he'd flirted with her, right up to the end.

"Don't" the words came out harsher than she intended, but had the desired effect. He let his hand drop to his side, breathed her in one last time, turned and headed for his front door.

"7.00am in the morning. Can you find your way back to the hub?"

"Yes."

"OK"

Then he was gone.


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning was an interesting one at the hub. Fri made her way successfully to the building looking refreshed and decidedly 21st Century. As the others arrived they tried not to let the shock show on their faces at the appearance of the woman amongst them, the last time they had seen her she had been a prisoner.

"I know this is a little strange given the circumstances surrounding our reunion, but Frienze is joining the team as of today. She is a very old friend of mine and I trust her.

Frienze Balthar this is Gwen Cooper, Owen Harper," Owen stepped forward to shake Fri's hand with a flirty look in his eye. Jack shot him a warning look. " Toshiko Sato and Ianto Jones." Ianto shook hands politely also but every cell in his body screamed with jealousy. "Right lets do what we do, people, Fri your with me."

The first few weeks with the team were pretty sedate. Just a few weevil catches. Fri kept her distance from Jack and the rest of the team on a personal level, while still absorbing as much knowledge about what they do as she could. She spent time with each of the individual team members, understanding their specialties, and, personalities. Everyone had a function, a place in the structure that was unique. Fri wasn't quite sure where Jack saw her fitting in, what specialty she could bring to the table. She wasn't the only one to have this thought. Eventually Gwen, Owen, Tosh and Ianto cornered Jack in his office. He wasn't surprised but he was a little annoyed. What more did he have to do to get them to trust his judgment. Obviously dying frequently to save their arses wasn't enough.

The other three very unsubtly maneuvered Gwen to the front of Jack's desk. It fell to her to voice what all four of them were thinking. "Jack," she began, "It's just that we have some concerns." Jack raised an eyebrow and leaned back in his chair, arms folded behind his head. "You clearly didn't recognize Frienze when she first arrived and she tried to kill you. Now you have her working in the hub, seeing sensitive technology, learning our every move. We were just wondering if perhaps….well do you think it's wise?"

Jack smiled slightly and dropped his hands palm down on the desk. He looked at his team one at a time. Weighing his words carefully "Well I guess you four wouldn't be much good to me if you didn't feel the need to question everything. I'll say this much. There are parts of my past that are a little clearer than others but she has me convinced. She's not from around here and I owe her, big. Will that put your minds at ease?"

"Not really." Piped up Tosh uncharacteristically.

Jack's grin widened considerably. He paused and then brought the conversation to an end by saying, "If I'm wrong you can all take turns shooting me again."

At 1640 hrs on Friday afternoon, two weeks after the team has raised its objections, Fri was to get a chance to see where she did fit in. An Abseinian long-range scout ship crashed just near the Cambrian Way. There was much cursing from the Owen and Gwen about a ruined weekend. Tosh, Ianto and Fri could care less. At least now they would have something to do.

They packed up the SVU and Jack put a container truck on standby dependant upon the situation they found when they reached the crash site. Fri remained quiet for most of the trip, silently trying to recall what she knew about Abseinians. A little over an hour and they were cordoning off the site. Jack dispatched the local authorities into Ianto's care. (A hot cuppa, dose of retconn and a brief description of a weather balloon would do the trick.) The other four descended the crater towards the ship. The design was not unlike the Tulans, a bit sleeker. Less bulky as Jack recalled. He also remembered they did not possess camouflage technology, so it looked like they may need the container after all. After glancing around the site and checking his wristband for signs of life, Jack made a signal for Tosh, Owen and Gwen to stay where they were. He then beckoned Fri towards him and they began an animated conversation with constant references to his wristband.

Gwen watched this exchange with interest and mistrust. In the time that she had been with Torchwood 3 Jack had never explained the device to her. She was pretty sure that was the case with the others as well. And the fact that he was never seen without it didn't allow them the opportunity to get a good look anyway. While Gwen was watching them Fri actually leaned in and pressed a few of the buttons, checked something in the read out and nodded to Jack. She began to approach the ship with weapon drawn. Jack motioned to the others to provide back up if necessary and they all followed Fri and Jack toward what looked like the entrance to ship.

Fri approached, ran her hand along the hull of the ship carefully. She found a hidden control panel and flipped it open. Jack stood close behind her with his gun drawn, ever watchful. Tosh, Gwen and Owen stood motionless, stunned, who was this woman. What the hell did she know about alien spacecraft? Fri pressed some keys on what appeared to be an elaborate keypad just out of the others eye line. Suddenly a hatch opened. Both Jack and Fri backed up a little. Out of the hatch, seemingly injured and propping itself against the side of the ship emerged a humanoid looking creature. Although the same basic shape as a human, it was differentiated by the fact that where we would have hair and nails, it had long flesh like tentacles dangling from its scalp and fingers. The flesh was motley, like a human on a freezing morning.

Gwen was trembling from head to toe. She was sure the other two were as well. However, all three of them were determined not to show how overwhelmed they were. Especially to the woman in front of them who did not seem the least concerned with the creatures appearance. They followed Jack's lead and held their weapons steady, aimed directly at the creature. As if this scene were not surreal enough, Fri suddenly yelled something guttural and unintelligible. The being stopped moving. It seemed to recognize the sound she had directed at it. After a short time it responded. Then things got a little out of hand. The exchange seemed to become heated, Jack started to look nervous. The others were shifting slightly from foot to foot waiting. For what they didn't know, but they knew this was way over their heads.

Fri yelled in English now over her shoulder. " In typical Abseinian form Captain, he wants to shoot first ask questions later. He doesn't want us anywhere near his craft even though it is disabled."

"Wise boy." Responded Jack, his mind ticking over now with options. "Have you told him we can help him fix it and send him on his way?"

"Yes."

"Have you told him we are not law enforcement?"

"Yes"

"Have you….?"

"Jack!" she yelled harshly, "Abseinian."

"Right." Jack thought for a moment. He didn't want to kill the being. That was too much like the old regime. He reached into the pocket of his greatcoat and retrieved a metal weapon that none of the team had ever seen before. A brief flicker of recognition and a smile in her eyes again told the team that Fri was not in the dark like them in this situation. "Stun it is then." He flicked a switch on the weapon and started to point it at the creature. The movement drew its attention towards Jack. It pointed its own weapon at Jack and fired. Gwen gasped as Jack was hit full in the chest with what seemed like a laser pulse. She made to run to him but the alien turned his weapon to the three of them. They stood rooted to the spot, staring at their attacker. The creature seemed to be contemplating which one to shoot first.

While its attention was elsewhere, Fri dropped to the ground almost silently. She crawled the short distance to Jack's lifeless form. Grabbed the sonic pistol, hoisted herself to a crouching position and pounced in the direction of the others just as the alien discharged his weapon. She took the blast in her left shoulder but not before she fired the stun charge. It hit the creature fair in the chest and it dropped instantly. Gwen scrambled to Jack. No matter how many times she saw it, she was still surprised and relieved when he came back. She didn't know how long she would have to wait this time, but she would wait.

After glancing at Jack lying only metres from her, Fri startled them all to action. "Right we have about three hours before this tosser comes too." She glanced at Owen to acknowledge his assistance with the British vernacular. "Clean up, Tosh check on Ianto and I'll call the container truck. Owen I'll get him to leave it at that ridge over there, you get Ianto to bring it the rest of the way in." she then made her way back over to where Gwen was sitting with Jack. Fri examined the wound in Jack's chest and felt for a pulse and didn't get one. She didn't really expect to. She glanced at Gwen. "Gwen, I'll help you get him into the SUV."

"No," Gwen replied petulantly. "We'll wait here."

"For What…..?" the words were barely out of her mouth when Jack gasped for air and struggled to sit upright. His next few breaths were deep and then the colour came quickly back to his face. Gwen held him as he regained his bearings. He didn't look at her though. His eyes searched around him, saw that everything was under control and came to rest on Fri. He grinned. There were no more secrets now. She grinned back. "Neat trick!" was all she said.

Back at the hub. The ship hidden in a hanger far underneath them the whole team debriefed. "Nice work," stated Jack, "quick clean up. Now that you've sedated him Owen, how long will he sleep?"

"Well a weevil would sleep for 24 hour with the dose I've given this bloke, given I don't know much about his physiology I can only guess a similar time frame."

"OK well I'll work on his ship over the rest of the weekend, Fri if you could come in about twenty four hours from now and try to have a conversation we'll take it from there and you lot can go home. See you back here Monday." Jack dismissed them. Fri was the last one to leave the boardroom. "Fri," said Jack hesitantly. "Thank you, you were outstanding tonight." He lifted a hand to her shoulder and as he made contact she winced. His face hardened in concern. "You're hurt." She nodded. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"To be honest I was having so much fun today I just forgot."

"Let me patch you up." And he led her to his office.

She sat on the edge of his desk. He stood close, pulling the fabric of her T-shirt away from the wound. As he was applying the antiseptic and gauze to her shoulder she asked quietly. "So you don't die easily then?"

Jack smiled. "I don't die at all as far as I can tell." His smile waned a little. "I told you I'm not the same man, Fri." He continued to tape up her shoulder. She didn't show any sign of pain, just sat still and strong. He allowed himself a long look at her while he was this close. She was amazing. Beautiful, brave and straight to the point. She had so easily taken control today. A 51st Century Girl. He'd missed that. His whole body was starting to react as strongly as his mind.

She looked up into his smiling blue eyes and her heart skipped a beat. He had lost some of his cheekiness and some of his hardness but none of his beauty. He was impossible to ignore, impressive, dangerous, sexy. Jack. The name suited him. They stayed locked like that for the longest time. The air between them seemed to crackle with electricity.

He said nothing more. She was in his arms before her mind could catch up and protest. "No…." it was a breathy sigh instead of the forceful order it should have been. It was the only thing she could manage before his lips came down on hers, catching her up in the whirlwind that was him, making her head spin and her body crumple.

She melted into him, he felt so familiar, comfortable but at the same time different.

At first the intensity engulfed them both. Their reactions were desperate, almost violent, lips crushing each other until they swelled. Hands grabbing at faces and hair, then at hips and buttocks, the need to be closer…to be joined as one, overwhelming.

Her ragged panting against his mouth was the most erotic thing he could imagine at that moment and he was overcome with the need to make her his. He buried himself in her, she let out a gasp that only spurred him on, harder and wilder, his lips were tangled in her hair. Her hands were splayed across his back. They moved now in a rhythm as old as time and so familiar….

_God I've missed this…this fire_… thought Jack through a passionate haze.

Then the full force of this thought hit him. He pulled back. His blue grey eyes searching hers for another hint of recognition. How could he miss something he didn't remember? Still breathing quite heavily they stared at each other for a long moment. Nothing else came to him, just an echo of familiar passion.


	4. Chapter 4

Jack and Fri lay entwined with each other. The morning suffused Jack's cubbyhole bedroom with warmth. Fri opened her eyes and listened to his steady breathing.

His left arm was loosely draped over her chest. Her fingers ran lightly over the worn leather of his vortex manipulator. He even slept in it she noted. Interesting. She popped open the cover gently, trying not to disturb him. She scanned the menu and found the option she wanted. Glancing once more at Jack she thought to herself, _Naked, not ideal but…_She was just about to set the coordinates when he spoke. "Find what you were looking for?" His voice was sleepy but suspicious.

"Just taking us home." She answered as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

Jack looked at her sharply.

"Your place, I could use a shower and a change of clothes."

He seemed to relax a little at this answer and smiled. "mmmm that first part sounds like fun, but we'll have to go the old fashioned way. Teleport was disabled, same as the time interface. It will however give you the Cardiff bus timetable" He rolled onto his back and snapped shut the cover. " Besides teleporting naked was never a good idea."

"Oh you've done it before."

Jack smiled wistfully. "Truthfully they probably would have let me go anyway, I'm that good."

"You are that!"

Jack gathered her into his arms. They made love again, slower this time, none of the desperation of the previous night. Gentle, tender. There could be little doubt in Jack's mind now that they had known each other. Fulfilling each other came too easily, almost instinctively. He brought her upright to him, their legs wrapped around each other, rocking languidly. As she climaxed she spoke his other name on a sigh. " Nate…"

Jack stopped moving.

He closed his eyes and with a sharp intake of breath threw his head back. Images flooded his mind, not a clear and concise timeline but flashes, like a DVD on fast-forward. He and Fri locked in a similar embrace, snippets of missions, laughter, and friends. It rushed through his mind so fast, it was disjointed but it was definitely memories. He waited, holding his breath. Nothing else came. No other visions. So he waited for the ones he had had to fall into place, to make sense. They didn't. He groaned in frustration, extricating himself from her embrace as delicately as possible. He wanted to keep this information to himself while he processed it.

"You know that shower was a good idea. Lets go to mine, I'll even make you breakfast."

While Fri showered Jack sat at his dining table with his head in his hands, eyes closed trying to recall the visions. They came back to him with effort but still not in any sort of order. Faces he didn't recognize. Definitely time agents though. Words echoing as if spoken across time …._follow orders……………simple…………_laughter. His own? He could see a weapon in his own hand. Then the memory dissipated like mist in the morning. He growled and thumped the table. Regaining his composure he tried again. This time came the vision of Fri draped around his own body, he could see her eyes, hear her breathing……_I love you………_then she was cowering in a corner with blood coming from her side……then nothing.

"Jack, what's wrong?" Fri was standing behind him in his kitchen. His eyes snapped open and he looked at her for a long time. "Jack?" she asked again. There she was, real and beautiful and from what he had just recalled, it seemed, telling the truth. He stood up. His eyes were red and moist. He gathered her into him and held her for the longest time.

"Nothing Fri, nothings wrong. Everything is fine now." He knew he wasn't making any sense. There were so many emotions running through him at the moment. Things he thought he would never feel again. Things that made sense and things that didn't. Jack wasn't sure he could ever open himself up again. But at this moment, right now he really, really wanted to.

The weekend was bliss for Jack. They returned to the hub on Saturday, He and Fri worked on the Abseinian's ship. There wasn't all that much wrong. The stabilizers were off line and it had played havoc with navigation. Nothing they couldn't repair given Torchwood's catalogue of Alien tools. Her comprehension of the technology and engineering principles almost matched his own. It made his heart swell to be able to share this with someone. The twenty first century was his home, by choice now, but what a rush it was to be himself.

When they finished up on the ship, Fri and Jack made their way to the cells to try and reason with their guest. He was angry but Fri persevered in his native tongue reiterating that they had not done anything to harm his ship. It was back in working order and in a few days they would take him back to the field where they had found him and let him take off. He was mistrustful. Fri got the distinct sense that he very much thought he would believe it when he saw it.

She also warned him to stay away from this planet in the future in no uncertain terms. This warning was merely translated verbatim from Jack. With Jack facing the creature as he spoke so there could be no misunderstanding of the tone and meaning of the words.

They headed back up to the main floor of the hub. As they approached his office Jack swung his hand out and clasped hers. Surprised she looked directly at him. "Would you have dinner with me, tonight?" he asked rather sheepishly. The question surprised both of them. Jack felt like he should be holding his nose and closing his eyes right about now. He seemed to be going in feet first whether his brain wanted him to or not.

"Like a date." He grinned like schoolboy.

They walked to a small restaurant over looking the bay. The lighting was dim with candles providing a romantic glow. There was a pianist in the corner right next to the dance floor. They took a table with a great view of the water. Jack ordered wine for them, and then he sat back in his chair and regarded her intently. Fri laughed and said, "You got it bad." She seemed to find this highly amusing.

Jack also laughed when he answered, "You know I think I do." They chinked their glasses together while still chuckling. Then Jack asked, "Do you miss home?"

Fri's smile faded a little. "Yes."

"I did too for a while."

"Can't have been easy, running all this time."

"I've stopped now."

"I know." She looked directly into his eyes.

"How long has it been, really, since the game station? That's when you dropped off the radar so to speak"

Jack returned her gaze. He seemed to be weighing up his answer, deciding how far to jump. Fri held her breath. She could feel the walls coming down around him. " One hundred and forty years."

"How did this happen to you?"

"A well meaning friend and a power far too great for her."

"And you can't die."

"No."

"Not ever?"

"No."

"Can you grow old?"

"Slowly, it would seem."

"You are so lucky you were still hot when this happened."

Jack nearly snorted wine through his nose. He was gasping for air and his body shaking with laughter.

Monday morning Jack looked down at the tangled mess of sheets under him. Fri lay face down amongst them, her body glistening with sweat from their exertion. He sighed and reluctantly picked up his cell phone. "What?" he barked down the line.

Gwen was a little startled at his manner, "Jack…we were just wondering if everything is alright."

"Fine."

"You're not in?"

"I knew I hired you for a reason PC Cooper" Jack's voice dripped with sarcasm. He knew he was acting like a spoiled child with a toy, but today he didn't care.

Gwen sensed this in him. "Jack we're just concerned. Frienze hasn't turned up either… and…well she did try to kill you." Now she was getting annoyed.

"Exactly, so what else could she do to me?" The last thing Gwen heard before the connection was severed was Jack laughing.

'That' thought Gwen. For all of Jack's secrets, she knew he was still human and therefore still capable of having his heart broken.

Gwen tried a few searches. She didn't really expect to find anything on their newest team member. Jack had lived a long time and been a lot of places. Places she was sure that none of the Torchwood 3 team really would ever understand. She tried to recall the words the other woman had said before Jack banished her from the holding cells.

'Time agent, con man,' it didn't make much sense to Gwen at all. The feeling of dread just wouldn't go away. She remembered the incident with the Abseinian, Fri's familiarity with Jack's wristband that was still such a mystery to the rest of the team. How did she know so much about it? Did she have one herself? No she wasn't wearing one when she arrived.

Jack and Fri entered the hub from the rolling cog like metal doors. "Anyone fancy a drive to the country?" Shouted Jack to the team. "It's time to send our guest on his way and I think we will be doing that with lots of guns pointed at him." Fri chuckled at this. No one else seemed to find it all that funny. The team exchanged unimpressed looks. "Owen lets go shopping in the weapons cache, then you and Ianto can help me escort our guest to the container truck. Girls with me in the SUV once he is secure." He threw Ianto the keys to the truck. They chose their most effective weapons.

They barely spoke in the SUV on the drive. The tension in the air was palpable. Partly because the last time they had dealt with this particular creature, things had not gone so well and partly each and every one of his team wanted to shake Jack and tell him to stop acting like a child. Gwen pondered; they'd all been in this position, caught up in a whirlwind of emotion and new love. But it usually ended badly. Stars that burn the brightest burn out fastest. Somehow they had expected their leader to know that better than all of them. The feeling of impending doom had deepened in Gwen's mind. She resolved that if there were nothing she could do to stop it then she would at least be there to pick up the pieces.

Once they had unloaded the ship Jack needed to help Ianto and Owen to release the Abseinien. He reiterated his warning to the creature via Fri. "You leave, you live, got it?" Everyone waited for the response. The creature nodded once. "Right in formation, do not take your eyes off him. Do not take your weapons off him. Got it?" The team nodded and trained their weapons on the Alien. Jack found himself in two minds. He had tuned his manipulator into the nav system of the ship to track the departure course. Just to be sure. He also wanted to be first line of defense if the creature decided he didn't like the plan. He hesitated one more moment and then in one swift movement released from his wrist the leather strap of the manipulator. He threw it through the air to Fri. "See if you can find the time of the next bus." He joked.

Four jaws seemed to hit the ground; the team stared in disbelief as Fri held the device in both hands flipped open the cover and began searching for the nav system. A secret smile spread across her lips. She looked up at Jack, confident, she nodded and he in turn signaled the rest of the team. Owen and Ianto brought the alien to Jack who never let his weapon waver. He disengaged the restraints, stepped back and there were five weapons trained on the alien. The creature looked over the group then started moving towards his ship. He opened the hatch and climbed in. They heard the engines power up. On the manipulator Fri followed the coordinates he set on the ships navigation system, still no one lowered their guns. They watched as the ship lifted off and turned towards the sky. "And….out of range." There was a collective sigh after she spoke.

Ianto started gathering up the weapons, the others started back towards the vehicles. Jack was slightly further away. He turned to start towards the SUV. He looked to where Fri was standing still clutching his vortex manipulator. "I wonder," she began. "If the homing beacon still works?"

Terror struck Jack's heart. No words would come out. He simply stared in horror as she hit the button that pinpointed his location to the time agency's mainframe. Each agent has an individual signal. They would know in matter of seconds when and where Captain Nate Artisse was. He made to run towards Fri. He got two or three steps when an agent materialized in front of him. He spun on his heel to change direction and another agent appeared. He stood frozen to the spot then as three more agents in quick succession completed the circle around him. They were all armed, weapons trained on Jack.

Gwen, Owen, Tosh and Ianto realized too late that this was bad, really bad. They'd surrendered their weapons to Ianto. He was stood with an arm full of guns. As the thought hit him and he made to redistribute them, Fri drew hers, pointed it directly at his head and said. "Drop them." Ianto hesitated, his mind searching for a solution. He could find none. Fri cocked her gun and spoke again. "Now Tea boy." It seemed he had no choice but to comply. He let the weapons fall to the ground at his feet. She kicked them away, never taking the weapon from his head. When she was far enough back she bent down and collected each of the guns. She tossed three to the agents nearest her and kept a second for herself, popping it in the waistband of her jeans. "Now boys and girls I do not want to hurt you. Our only interest is in your boss here, so don't do anything stupid and you get to live, ok?"

Owen sneered. Gwen nodded. Tosh and Ianto just looked stricken. Fri reached into a pouch on the waist of the nearest agent and pulled out a stone like device. She threw it at their feet and it activated a force field around them. It was a more powerful, more advanced version of the device Torchwood had in its possession.

Frienze then turned her attention to Jack. His face had turned to stone. "Ready to go home. Baby?" she oozed.

"Why?" was all Jack could manage out of gritted teeth.

"The price was right."

"You're a bounty hunter." He was incredulous.

"Now, now don't take it personally. They only send the best for you Captain. You should be flattered. Ever since your adventures on the Game station you have been most sought after by a lot of people, Immortality fascinates many sections of the community, the agency made the best offer. "

"But I remember……."

" Planted. Nice touch don't you think? Just enough to hook you good."

"So we've never met?"

She laughed at this. "Oh we've met, you just weren't as trusting the last time. This century has made you soft."

Jack hung his head. A mix of anger and shame washed over him. He looked over at his team, helpless against the kind of technology the agency could employ. He didn't see a way out of this. If he made a break for it they would shoot him and while it wouldn't kill him it would render him useless for a while allowing them to take him home. Stalling for time was all he could think of.

"So you're the best they've got?" he asked.

She smiled. "Yeah. Once you're wrangled they've given me a sweet offer to go after your mate. I could play the doe eyed companion to a tee, don't you think?"

"You're not that good."

"Your hero worship is misplaced Captain. I am that good."


End file.
